Conservative Party Pushes to Protect Incumbent Candidates

Representative democracy in Canada was recently dealt another blow as political parties move to protect incumbent MPs from facing contested constituency nominations. The Hill Times is reporting on the details of recent decisions of the Conservative and Liberals parties to make nomination challenges against incumbents more difficult to mount.

The Conservative barrier is significantly more onerous in that an incumbent candidate will only face a nomination challenge if 2/3 of the local constituency membership petition the National Party office for a nomination. The reality is any challenger has to win two times to be successful. First they need a large majority of the current members to ask for a nomination and, if 2/3 of them agree, the challenger then has to win the actual nomination.

Perhaps in reality if a constituency membership is upset enough with their candidate that 2/3 ask for a nomination process, they may see the writing on the wall and demur. Or, given the combative nature of politics, it may cause the opposite reaction and result in some serious dirty and deceitful politics to rule the day.

This is a disaster for the 90%+ of Canadians who do not belong to political parties and only actively engage in the political process at election time. There is already a strong resistance amongst Canadians to join political parties so the candidate selection game is already rigged in favour of those of us how belong to political parties. With this change in the Conservative Party nomination process, the nomination process becomes an even greater rigged auction. The "reserve price" on a nomination is set so high that nobody will or can pay it. So the status quo prevails.

The other natural consequence of such a rigged system of candidate selection is we protect mediocrity as well as merit. The top down central office control of the incumbents and the nomination apparatus puts even more power in the party executive, the leader and his inner circle of advisers.

The Liberals have used a carrot to protect incumbents. To stay "protected" in their nomination, they have to prove to the party headquarters that they have until June to recruit 400 members in their riding associations and at least 40 "Victory Fund" donors who donate $10 or more on a monthly basis, $5 to the party headquarters, and the other $5 to the riding association.

The Liberals need money and manpower to run an election and that is clearly what is behind this move to jack up the performance requirements of incumbent candidates. It will be interesting to see what happens to those candidates who fail to achieve this goal. Will they see the party headquarters actively recruit alternate candidates to run against them? I doubt it will be the norm but I full expect it will happen. Liberal candidates who go through the motions at election time who still believe they represent "the natural governing party of Canada" will be in for a rude awakening.

The NDP have no such protections for incuments. Each and every candidate must earn the support of the local constituency membership for each and every election...just as it ought to be.

What this all means for the Canadian voter is not good. We have not attracted our best and brightest into public life for quite some time. The Conservative move will embed the incumbents and demoralize potential challengers. Politicians for life will the net result in the Conservative ranks, especially in Alberta seats where the Conservatives have a vice grip like hold on seats.

What are we to do about this? Well there is not much we can do. Political parties are private "clubs" that are ostensibly controlled by the membership. Without a party membership ordinary citizens are shut out of this vital part of the overall political process. We only get to chose between party candidates at election time.

With only 40% of eligible voters bothering to participate by at least showing up to vote this move by the Conservative Party only serves to further disillusion citizens and alienate them from their so-called democracy.

There is a crying need for serious governing and democratic reform in all orders of government in all corners of Canada.

Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay Shirky

Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay Shirky
You think I write long blog pieces...Meet Clay Shirky. This is a must read for anyone thinking and worrign about the changing media reality.

The Blackberry Boys Obey the Rules but Are the Rules Realistic?

I remember when Ed Stelmach was one of the “Deep Six” group of rookie backbencher MLAs. They sat in the nose-bleed seats way in the back. They wore pink bow ties and were prepared to be contrarian. When truth had to be brought to power they delivered it - often very effectively.

Now we have a new group "The Digital Six." These are, the thoroughly modern and contrarian MLAs I like to call The Blackberry-Boys. These are the MLAs who were caught “Twittering” in Question Period and have been reprimanded by the Speaker. There are rules and they must be to be honoured, and the Speaker is clear he will enforce them. The Blackberry Boys have said they will abide – as they should. Otherwise the Speaker will come down hard and they will find themselves out on their ears and become the “New Kids in the Hall.”

The Speaker is right to enforce the rules. It is his duty. The question is should there be such rules against using PDAs in the Legislature Chamber? Is that reasonable in the age of digital democracy? I don’t think so. Tradition versus technology is the dynamic at play here. The rules banning Blackberry communications in QP or even the debates and in Committee is something that must be changed.

We have had Hansard for eons and we have had live television coverage of QP for decades. There is even on-line streaming of QP these days so you can catch it on your computer from anywhere in the world that has a browser. That streaming service has been extended to include audio and video coverage of Committee meetings. These are all progressive steps to be applauded and were achieved under the leadership of the current Speaker. Hard to peg him as a Luddite. He is not.

That said, what is the principle and purpose of banning digital communications from the Legislature to the outside world by MLAs? It is because of the decorum of Question Period? Well the tradition of parliamentary government in QP is hardly one where manners prevail. It is a tradition rife with heckling, hectoring, haranguing and humiliation. That history hardly justifies a ban. School teachers have been loathed to bring classes to see QP because of the bad example these “adults” provided to students in their QP shenanigans.

Is it because MLAs are perceived as not paying proper attention while Twittering or text messaging? With the extensive staging and scripting of QP and the focus on Ministers what is there that demands such attentiveness? Is anyone actually sitting in the Legislature in QP not already knowing what the focus and outcome of this farce in three acts is going to be about? Who needs to pay that kind of attention with you already know the plot, the characters and their lines and the outcome of the “drama”?

I think the Backbenchers time is better spent reaching out to the world and putting the proceedings in some meaningful context for the rabble also known as citizens. This better use of their time instead of feigning interest in the proceedings for the benefit of the TV cameras.

The larger question is what is the actual value of Question Period anymore anyway? As I said, it is highly scripted political theatre designed to garner positive or negative headlines. It is not a way to get accountable, open and transparent governance. The Opposition’s questions are rarely answered to the point where the running gag saying “It is called Question Period not Answer Period” is more true than funny.

Then we have the self-serving puffball questions that are read by government Backbenchers to government Ministers, many of whom merely answer by reading directly from prepared scripts. The purpose of this tactic is to get the government version of the “story “on the public record and hopefully garner some positive media coverage. But it is not credible to the media so it does not work. Puffballs have the side benefit of giving Backbenchers some Hansard excerpts to send to constituents to show they are on the job. This is all so passé and such a futile exercise in message control. It merely adds to citizen cynicism about the overall effectiveness of our representative democracy.

There is a new web-based world out there and it is changing everything, including democracy and governing. I am thinking the Alberta Speaker’s enforcement of the old-world rules is doing the focus on this issue of digital real-time communications and the ubiquitous connectivity capacity of politicians a real favour. He is precipitating a public discussion about what accountable, open, responsible and effective representative government can actually be in the digital age.

There is so much positive potential in all of this in so many ways and at so many levels. Technology induced change is not new but it is always disruptive so let the debate begin.

Ken Chapman on CBC Wildrose (Mar. 11. 2009)

Texting and Twittering Tempest in a teapot. MLAs have Blackberrys - OMG - what will they think of next?

T Mobile Advert 2009 Full Version HQ

Sure this is an advert from England...but suspend your cynicism for a few minutes and get into the spirit of the thing....BUT FIRST DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO UNTIL YOU SEE THE EARLIER POST.

Making of T-Mobile Dance

This is the best metaphor I have come across for how real politics for real people being really human ought to be like....next post is what they did. H/T to Paul T

Barry Schwartz: The real crisis? We stopped being wise

Here is 20 minutes of video that is worth your time. Virtue as an old fashioned word. I think it is worth watching in the context of what we might consider from our political representatives.

I think Alberta MLAs who are Twittering in Question Period may be an example of personal virtue and not a slight to tradition or decorum.

Instead of being/feigning "attendance" for a partisan show of symbolic solidarity they may be actually communicating with real human beings as citizens and about what is happening in the legislative process that may impact them. Wouldn't that be refreshing. It is not easy to control the scripted political message in this new world order. What kind ot treason whoul happen if our are elected representatives who can, on their own, see beyond the rules and how they can get in the way and choose to exercise personal wisdom and judgement.

Politicians are there to serve other people not just the party or the caucus or the leader without exercising personal wisdom on behalf of US.

Linking the Internet and the SuperNet Will Reshape Rural Alberta

The wonderful world of technology to evolving and revolving – all at the same time and changing the way we live and work and relax!

Marshall McLuhan said “We shape our tools and then they shape us.” The way the tool of the Internet is shaping us is absolutely fascinating and I’m thinking absolutely profound in technical terms but also in socio-cultural terms.

In social terms we have newspapers are struggling to find a sustainable business model in the face of growing internet competition as a news and information source. Television no longer has the dominant grasp of our eyeballs because we are using more on-line viewing of programs. We now have a box of technology that will provide free internet based television that will be challenge the viability of the subscriber based cable companies. The box has the support of the major program producers to boot.

iTunes with MP3 players like iPods has found a successful business model to make money from music and are now the largest vendors of music on the planet. The e-book is an emerging challenge to traditional book publishing and the new Kindle reader from Amazon may be the tech breakthrough needed to make this finally happen.

The social media explosion of Facebook, Twitter and other such sites, where people “meet” and make sense of their world, has happened. It represents a fundamental culture shift that has happened around the globe and virtually (sic) overnight. The move from text based e-mail applications to social media methods and beyond that include YouTube video being uploaded at the rate of about 10,000 a day shows how the internet has changed the cultural context of the web.

One of the next big economic enablers from the changing internet is going to be from the declining cost of videoconferencing equipment and the increasing ease of use. There is a technological breakthrough that dramatically reduces the bandwidth needs so it can now use telephone lines instead of cable or expensive fibre optics. This will be a ubiquitous and cost effective way to get anyone with an old-fashioned phone line into the front lines of internet capacity and connectivity.

Rural communities in Alberta are no longer isolated by time and distance and their sustained economic viability is now more about their imaginations than the traditional limitations. Remote First Nations are now into videoconferencing. Other communities are restructuring relationship internally and externally to lever the opportunities for enhanced internet links for SuperNet access. Others are getting grants andlooking at the feasibility of providing optical fibre connections direct to all homes and businesses in an entire community.

Still others are taking advantage of CRTC regulatory procedures to seek a requirement to enable use of existing land line telephone services. This access, if approved, will provide for competitive services for internet, VOIP and even high definition videoconferencing all over the province with no additional physical infrastructure requirements or other costs to taxpayers or users.


This copper wire connectivity will also enable Albertans to link at fibre quality to the SuperNet fibre optic network that is all over the province too. This old-fashioned copper wire connectivity will ironically make that $B investment in the SuperNet pays off through personal, community and business access for anyone in the province who wants to use it.

The internet is definitely a tool that we shaped and it is dramatically reshaping us - and there is every indication that it will continue to do so for some time to come. Fascinating times.

IDEAfest and the Power of One

There is a strange shift happening in the world these days. The power to influence, change and adapt is shifting. The move is from creaky institutions stuck in hierarchies working in a "pecking ordered" world, to wired individuals who are in a heteroarchy, conversing in a linked and networked world.

This is all happening primarily because of three major forces. First is the decline of relevance, trustworthiness and capacity of our old-style institutions in all realms from the political to communications, to religion to the societal influences.

Second is the power of the Internet and the increasing access to high speed and high capacity bandwidth give everyone access to new sense of community when, where and how they choose. Third is the advent and mindboggling adoption of the social media and the participation phenomenon ranging from Blogs, to Facebook to Twitter and YouTube, only to name a few.

In the old “pecking-order” reality what it took to make a difference was not what you knew but who you knew. In the new “networked reality” what it takes to make a difference has changed. Now it is about what do you know for sure and who knows you. The social media tools needed to engage in this wired-world are just a click away. Anyone who wants to engage, share, create, converse and even take action has opportunity and capacity. It is all about personal expression and choice, not permission or position.

For a perfect example of the “Power of One” to make a difference, generate interest and enable action in this new networked world just look at Michael Janz and his IDEAfest 2009 project. One guy with an idea, a network of friends and contacts with a Facebook account and his is pulling this event off.

IDEAfest runs this Saturday, March 7, 2009 from 10am-5pm at the UofA Tory Basement 95 and it is free. It is a mini TED that will be made up of self-selecting people with a passion and a purpose who will present their ideas to anyone who wants to show up, lisaten and perhaps participate.

The event format is loose so you just show up and you can go to any of 3 concurrent sessions of 30 minutes presented by a variety of people all through the day. The subjects are and intriguing and the presenters are interesting.

The closing comment on Michael’s Facebook link for IDEAfest 2009 sums up the spirit when he says “At the end of the day we will get together and order Pizza and Beer.” Sounds to me like the beginning of a beautiful set of relationships.

Ken on CBC Wildrose (Feb. 25, 2009)

The Alberta Image Problem comes from the embedded images of dirty oil. It is now an image that is set in the imagination of the peoples of the planet and the recent National Geographic feature is all the proof one needs.

What are we going to do about it? There are lots or good things around oul sands development to talk about and other events and activities that we need to apolozige for and get fixed but we need to get on with it in an authentic and authoritative way - not just media messaging and spin.

We have to get serious about the reality of our ensuring ourt foundational Albertan values are more aggressively and obviously aligned with our actions in oil sands development. Research shows Albertans want the oil sands to be developed the right way - responsibly - and not just rapidly.

Slick messaging and focus group tested slogans will do more harm than good and only serve to add to cynicism and skepticism and just undermine (sic) our reputation in the world.

Albertans want to be proud of what we are doing in the development of OUR oil sands. So far we have been mostly boastful about the size of the reserves and the enormity of investment levels. Albertans have not been given enough reasons to believe that we should be proud about how we - as owners - are responsibly and sustainably exploiting this vital resource.

Buffet Says He "Blew It" on Energy Sector Investment

Warren Buffet "admits mistake" when he bought ConocoPhillips oil stock at the price peak of $147 for Berkshire Hathaway, his investment company. He, like many other irrational exuberant investors did not fore see the dramatic fall in energy prices in the second half of 2008.

the move cost Berkshire Hathaway "several billion dollars" according to reports quoting Buffet. Berkshire Hathaway posted 2008 net earnings just shy of $5B - a 60% haircut from the $13B of a year earlier.

Based on the US financial sector performance last year Buffet is still looking relatively good.

If Warren Buffet can get caught up in this downward fiscal vortex that badly, what are we mere mortals expected to do?

"Downstream" Film Showings in Alberta

The screenings of DOWNSTREAM a documentary on the health concerns downstream fomr the oil sands are happening in Ft. Chipewyan Friday March 6, two screenings in Edmonton Sunday March 8 and on Monday March 9th in Calgary.


Here is some of the promotional material for the film:

"DOWNSTREAMCanada, U.S.A., 2008, 33 minutes http://www.downstreamdoc.com/
At the heart of the multi-billion dollar tar sands industry in Northern Alberta, Dr. John O' Connor's career is jeopardized as he fights for the lives of the Aboriginal people living and dying of rare forms of cancer downstream from one of the largest oil operations in the world. Making the short-list for this year's Academy Award® Nominations for best short documentary, Downstream, provides an in-depth look at the impact oil sands extraction is taking on the surrounding communities."

"Witnessing unprecedented changes to their land, health and heritage, the people of Fort Chipewyan have struggled for years to have their concerns addressed by government and industry. Downstream has raised unparalleled awareness in Canada and the United States regarding the environmental, economic and social impacts of the tar sands on both sides of the border."

Here is the ticket information:

Sunday March 8th, 2pm and 4pm • Metro Cinema9829 101A Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T5J 0A1, CanadaAdvance Tickets in Edmonton available at 3 locations as of Monday, March 2nd. All tickets $10: Metro Cinema (office)6-32, Stanley Milner Library7 Sir Winston Churchill SquareEdmonton 780.425.9212metro@metrocinema.orgMetro Cinema Box Office Zeidler Hall, Main Floor Citadel Theatre9828-101 A Avenue, EdmontonTix on The Square9930-102 AvenueSir Winston Churchill SquareEdmonton 780.420.1757tix@tixonthesquare.ca

There will be panel discussions in each location but only after the 2 pm screening in Edmonton.


Leslie Iwerks Emmy® Award Winning Producer, Phil Alberstat, Family Physician, Dr. John O’Connor Professor of Ecology, University of Alberta, Dr. David SchindlerAlberta Liberal Leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Alberta Legislature, Dr. David Swann Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Strathcona, Linda DuncanFormer Chief, Mikisew Cree First Nation, George PoitrasFormer Chief, Smith’s Landing Treaty 8 First Nation, Francois PauletteEcologist, Treeline Ecological Research, Dr. Kevin Timoney


CALGARYMonday, March 9th, 7pm and 9:30pm • Plaza Theater1133 Kensington Road NW, Calgary, AB T2N 3P4, Canada Advance Tickets in Calgary available at 2 locations as of Saturday, February 28. Adults: $9Students/Youth (13-17): $7Seniors/Kids (Up to 12): $5HERITAGE POSTERS:1505 11th Avenue SW, CalgaryTelephone: 403.802.1846Email: heritageposters@shawcable.comPLAZA THEATRE:1133 Kensington Rd NW, CalgaryTelephone: 403.283.2222Email: pete@theplaza.ca


A PANEL DISCUSSION WILL FOLLOW THE 7PM SCREENINGin Calgary PANELISTS WILL INCLUDE:Academy Award® and Emmy® Nominated Director, Leslie Iwerks Emmy® Award Winning Producer, Phil Alberstat Family Physician, Dr. John O’Connor Award Winning Investigative Journalist and Author of Tar Sands-Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, Andrew NikiforukAlberta Liberal Leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Alberta Legislature, Dr. David Swann Proceeds of ticket sales will benefit the people of Fort Chipewyan.

Harper Continues to Ignore Khadr Case

The Harper government (OUR GOVERNMENT FOR NOW) is still refusing to move on the Omar Khadr case. This is confirmed in Minister Cannon's recent meeting with Secretary of State Clinton.

Khadr is a child soldier and has been rotting in Gitmo for a third of his young life, thanks to Harper, Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney. He is not getting the benefit of the American system fo due process of law and he is being denied the legal protections that ought to be afforded every Canadian citizen by our government.

Globe and Mail has a piece just out on line that shows even those who were prosecuting in Gitmo can't take it any more. A link that is well worth a read.

Bring Omar home Mr. Prime Minister. I can't believe we still have to protest this kind of crap.

Good News: Fort Chipewyan is Using Video Conferencing.

ACFN GETS VIDEO CONFERENCING:
Here is a great piece of counter-intuitive good news that I just have to share. The Athabascan Chipewyan First Nation has just installed a high definition Lifesize video conferencing system in Fort Chipewyan, one of the most remote communities in Alberta. They are adding even more video conference capacity to their operations in Fort McMurray now too.

I will now be able to work with them face to face from my office with my system, on an on-going basis, without the time and cost of travel, accommodation and meals etc. The productivity increases and the improved effectiveness of our working together will be enormous. As well as well as improved communications and convenience we all will reduced carbon footprint with less travel.

Fort Chipewyan is one of the most remote and vulnerable communities in the province. The ACFN gets it and has taken a step into 21st century connectivity with this facility. Well done Chief Adam and congratulation to the rest of your crew in making this move.

VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS IS BECOMING MORE IMPORTANT
It used to be that 70% of our communications was influenced by visual inputs. Apparently newer studies are showing this has increased to over 80% of visual clues that have influence over the effectiveness of our human communication. As the Internet goes more to video and we have had more television exposure over the years, the more importance we are placing on our visual communications. Video conferencing is a natural response to provide that need for improved visual communications.

VIDEO CONFERENCING IS NOW COST EFFECTIVE
I am using video-conferencing more and more in my day-to-day work and am encouraging everyone I can to adopt this technology for the obvious reasons. I get excited about new technology and the positive changes it can make to our world. I am an early adapter more than an early adporter. Video conferencing like I am using is now accessible physically and fiscally for small businesses like mine. It has been one of the big changes from technology that I am really excited about.

THE LAST MILE SUPERNET SOLUTION FOR RURAL ALBERTA IS AT HAND
I hope the CRTC requires Telus to allow access to their unloaded copper telephone lines in Alberta A formal application has been made to the CRTC for that very purpose and a final decision from the Commission is expected shortly. If successful then anyone with a land line telephone service will be able to have this copper wire capacity used for Internet and other high valued added services like video conferencing. Imagine having that in you business, home or organization in rural Alberta. That will level the playing field for rural Albertans significanlty.

Connect those telephone lines to the SuperNet and all of a sudden rural Alberta's last mile SuperNet connectivity problem is also solved. Then more citizens and businesses all over rural Alberta willthen have fibre level internet services including high definition video access to the world using the power of the SuperNet. It can be there for them at a fraction of the cost of fibre and not expensive fibre installation costs. Telephone lines are everywhere in Alberta. They are very familiar and reliable technology that does not require expensive fibre optic installations. As one telephony consultant said recently, "Copper wire may be buried but it is not dead."

The SuperNet has enormous potential as an economic lever and a competative differentiator for our province. Alberta's SuperNet is one of the most powerful and unique 21st century infrastructures on the planet. Now all we need to do is to get Albertans hooked up and using it. Some policy decisions at the CRTC and shared SuperNet access policies need to come together to make this happen.

Harper Will Have to be Honest and Govern for a Change.

The Liberals are signalling a possible June election if Harper stays his usual course of announcing fiscal plans for stimulus and then sits on the sidelines. I don't think that will happen in June because Harper is more likely to just dig himself deeper in debt and trouble. Expect an election in the fall of 2009.

Harper is signalling now that he wants to take "short-cuts" and shovel the stimulus money out the door with minimal accountability for approval processes. He has already aid mistakes will be made but Harper would rather do this spending rapidly but not right. We need both test to be met Mr. Prime Minister.

Without proper oversight expect Harper to steer funds to those ridings where he needs to retain or gain political support. Equity and effectiveness for the country or the economy will not be Harper's operational principles for fund distribution if Harper has his way.

Harper now as an accountability problem. He has to report to the nation on his budget performance at the end of March and the and of June. Harper is now hamstrung and must be truthful and transparent for the first time. He actually has perform in his job as Prime Minister for the benefit of the nation and not just his personal pursuit of political power. If he continues to falter and fritter away time and time again with a continued negative ad campaigns, partisan political pranks and half-truths he will face certain defeat in the next election.

Harper has lied to us repeatedly and particulalry in the last election about the economic realities we were facing and about to face...even promising a fiscal surplus and no debt or deficit on his watch.

That deplorable dishonest behaviour is unacceptable. We need our political class to give us the truth that is delivered in a timely, straight and unvarnished fashion so we can forward plan from a factual base.

It is questionable if Harper and his government is even capable of this standard of character leadership - at least if you look at his past history. If they are not adaptable to change and honest government then the voter has to get involved. Citizens will have to take charge and invoke the necessary change of government so we can leave the planet and our place in it in better shape than when we came into the world.

Get ready for a fall election Canada.

Bank Shareholders Now Have a Say in CEO Compensation

Shareholders of three big Canadian banks have won the right to vote on top banker’s compensation. YES!!!

This is encouraging and I hope it is the start of a trend for a more activitist shareholder and investor approach. We need the individual corporate owners to particularly push their enterprises to pursue a more integrated economic and ecological approach to doing business.

Canadian banks are the best run in the world and some of our CEO’s have volunteered to reduce personal compensation and some have donated the difference to charity. The recent announcements of 1st QTR profits from 4 of the 6 top Canadian banks are very encouraging as well. Increased reserves for pending bad news are being made and loans to creditworthy customers are still happening.

The changing times are showing that shareholders and investors are getting more engaged as corporate owners. This move toward non-binding shareholder votes on executive compensation is a step the right direction. The non-binding vote is a smart move. It sets a tone and sends a message about shareholder mood.

The discrepancy between the most highly paid and the lowest workers in our society seem to be growing and will have serious social cohesion implications for the country.
It was the poorly managed banks and investment houses in the States and the negligence of bankers and investment “professionals” in the rest of the work who sold crap paper that that got the world wide into this economic crisis.

I expect to see a major housecleaning of many of the boardrooms of a wide range of Canadian public companies as the social license to operate responsibilities starts to sink in. Shareholders and consumers will start to act based on ethical investment and purchasing approaches. Then we will see a systemic and fundamental change in the role and responsibility of business.

Judge Won't Restrict His Inquiry Into Mulroney Schreiber Affair.

The Globe and Mail is reporting an interesting development on the Mulroney Schreiber Affair and the pending Judicial Inquiry.

Associate Chief Justice Jeffrey Oliphant, the man conducting the Inquiry, rejected arguments my Mulroney’s lawyers to narrow the scope of the Inquiry. The Chair wants to review the “appropriateness” of former Prime Minister Mulroney’s behaviour with “the closest possible scrutiny.

The Mulroney legal team was trying to get the Inquiry to agree that he could not consider the Criminal Code, the Income Tax Act, and anti-corruption legislation in his deliberations.
Thankfully the Chair decided that these laws are applicable for consideration when inquiring into the “appropriateness” of Mulroney taking a large cash payment from Schreiber for lobbying purposes shortly after leaving the office of Prime Ministers.

The Chair described his task saying “I intend to determine, on an objective basis, whether Mr. Mulroney…conformed with the highest standards of conduct.” He goes further to say “I believe that this standard is one that reflects the importance to Canadian democracy of the office of the prime minister, as well as the public trust reposed in the integrity, objectivity and impartiality of public office holders.”

Oliphant was clearly not amused by the Mulroney gambit to narrow the scope of the Inquiry. He noted that in 1988 then Prime Minister Mulroney distributed a document to his cabinet entitled Guidance for Ministers. That document apparently warned the Mulroney cabinet that they had an obligation to go further than “simply to observe the law.” Oliphant was pretty clear that he was going to hold Mulroney to the same standard.

I hope CPAC will be covering this Inquiry from gavel to gavel like they did with Adscam. Not just because of the politics but because it will help Canadians who are concerned about our democracy but also the quality of the character of our elected representatives.

Should Business Responsibility to the Environment be Governed by the State of the Economy?

I just got the teaser from the McKinsey Quarterly on the global survey they did on “valuing corporate social responsibility.” The findings are disturbing. First the good news! The survey indicates 2/3 of Corporate Financial Officers and ¾ of investment professionals “…agree that environment, social and governance activities do create value for their shareholders…” Here is the qualifying kicker. They restrict that belief to “normal economic times.”

Well these are hardly normal economic times and the survey finds these professionals now “…view some of these programs differently.” Guess what has changed. The importance of governance programs has increased and the importance of environmental programs has decreased. The needs of the environment and our responsibility to protect the environment are not seasonal and cyclical.

It almost seems like CFOs who run corporate finances and investment professionals, those folks who advise others where to put their money, think board of director issues like CEO compensation is more important than their environmental efforts.

Are these folks ever out of touch with what most people are thinking about the role, responsibilities and purpose of business today. This is especially true given the amount of greed and corruption that are at the root causes of this recession.

I expect more investors to be seriously considering ethical investing criteria when they return to the market. Share your heads CFOs and Investment professionals. Business is not just about business. It is about public trust and a social license to operate and that demands employing the best possible environmental practices. Don’t forget the economy is there to serve the needs of society and not the other way around.

Canada's Privacy Commissioner Not Amused on How Net Neutrality Can Invade Personal Privacy Rights.

The Canadian Privacy Commissioner has weighed in on the CRTC hearings on issues of Net Neutrality and he is not amused. In considering the invasive privacy issues that would ensue (sic) by allowing ISPs to "manage the network" in the way proposed would be "less than transparent."

The Commissioner noted that some Canadians have already complained to him about invasions of their privacy by ISPs and "These complaints are currently being investigated." Good.

He goes on to note his office is involved in "conducting ongoing research into the privacy implications of DPI and Internet throttling, from a legal, policy-based and technical perspective." Good.

He is soon to publish a series of essays on privacy and Internet ISP issues written by international experts and will also be launching an interactive website to "facilitate public discussion and education." Good.

Here is a link to his submission and hat tip to Michael Geist for the heads up on Twitter.

U.K. Repatriates a Former Resident - Not Even a Citizen - from Gitmo! Omar Khadr - a Canadian Citizen - Still Rots

The U.K. expect the return of a Gitmo prisoner on Monday. This prisoner is not even a British citizen and was only a former resident of England but the U.K. government has been lobbying for his release and return to the U.K. since 2007


Omar Khadr is a child soldier and Canadian citizen who has been in Gitmo for a third of his life and our Prime Minister Stephen Harper could care less. Michael Ignatieff used some of his airport hanger time meeting with President Obama last week to bring up Omar's case. At least somebody in our government cares about the rights of Canadian citizens incarcerated in foreign prisons.


What is wrong with this picture? Pray you never get imprisoned in a foreign jurisdiction and tortured while Stephen Harper is still Prime Minister. This is not the first time this has happened. Just ask Maher Arar.

Juan Enriquez: Tech evolution will eclipse the financial crisis

I have met Juan here in Edmonton, had lunch wiht him and explored a fascinationg porject proposal on alterantive uses of CO2. I have to tell you this video of his recent TED presentation is the measure of the man's imagination and the implications of his mind. It is worth a view. It is thougth provoking, insightful and incite-full.

Obama's Ottawa Visit Marks the Beginning of the End of Stephen Harper.

I have been swamped this week and no time to post and frustrated because there is so much going on, both in my world and the rest of the world.


I wanted to share some preliminary observations on the Obama visit in a political and policy context. I will be doing a much more extensive analysis on events and implications over the week end and distributing it to the Cambridge Strategies subscriber list early next week.


The bottom line is there were no surprises coming out of the Obama visit. It really was so short and frantic time-wise that it has to be more of a pit stop than a State Visit. There was the usual commentator gushing coming from the MSM. They picked up on the human interest angle more than the politics or policy pronouncements, which while preliminary, were potentially profound. More on that next week but infotainment seems to be the default position of MSM these days.

I think the Ottawa visit was, from a Washington perspective a dress rehearsal for logistics and security when Obama travels overseas on more serious trips. I think Obama’s advance team used Harper as a shill to test out their Presidential travel and protection procedures in a very safe place like Canada. The meeting between leaders was abbreviated orchestrated and the new conference looked like they were filling time with homilies and platitudes.

Policy substance was hinted at but it was diverted into future “dialogues” to happen between officials. On the personality side it was good to see Obama extend his time with Harper to 90 minutes from an hour and with Ignatieff to 35 minutes from the 15 minutes the PMO allocated.

Typical shabbiness from the PMO to delegate the Obama –Ignatieff time to the hospitality of a hanger at the airport - but that is just what we have come to expect from the hyper-partisan Prime Minister Harper.


The new secret weapon Canada has on the diplomatic front is Governor General Michaelle Jean. Obama seems to be most comfortable and communicative with her and why not given the symbolic between them.


My sense is the Obama visit is the beginning of the end of Harper politically. The perfunctory visit to Canada that was a dress rehearsal for more serious international visits is one thing but I sense Obama’s advance team sized Harper up as a waste of time. He is in a weak and weakening position politically, an acolyte of the Bush White House and will only pay lip service to Obama’s progressive agenda.


The world orienting story and grand narrative changed when Obama got elected. Harper is lost and languishing in the past glories of Reagan and Bush years and is out of dated and out of touch. Obama knows that and decided to waste little time on Harper due to his tenuous grasp on leadership.


The PMO tried in the most self-conscious and inept ways possible to draw parallels between Harper and Obama and could only muster embarrassing linkages like both are “family men” and “outsiders.” One has the urge to divert one’s eyes in the face of even reading such embarrassing stretches of reality and pretenses of rapport.


On the other hand, the parallels between Obama and Ignatieff were obvious. Both were Harvard educated, academics, teachers and accomplished writers. Harper is apparently writing a book – on hockey. Obama noted that he he has actually ready Ignatieff's books during their airport hanger meeting. Iggy appropriately played down the media musing on his similarities to the President by noting “Look, there’s only one Barack Obama…I’m a politician in Canada. Let’s keep it under control here.” Can you ever imagine Stephen Harper uttering such a self deprecating statement?


Canadians are tiring and distrusting of Harper and will soon dismiss his judgment, question his ability and worry over his commitment to actually deliver the stimulus needed to resolve the recession crisis we face. His only saving grace is the polls showing general feeling of optimism of Canadians indicating they believe that we will weather this storm before the end of 2009. That optimism was measured before the headlines of today showing that once mighty Alberta has also fallen into a sharp recession. Alberta has moved from an $8B surplus to a $1B deficit in a mere 6 months. That is sobering and serious stuff that will no doubt resonate adversely across the psyche of the nation. I will have more to say on that in later posts.


I still think we are into a fall 2009 election. This is ironically consistent with Harper’s fixed election law. remember that laws he blatantly ignored for reasons of retaining personal power and to hell with the best interests of the country? Right now Ignatieff holds the strings and the trump cards and Harper is forced to dance to a different tune than he wants to and it is music that he does not even seem to know. It is just a matter of time before Harper quits or losses and returns to private life as a fellow in the Fraser Institute.

American Drones Patrol Manitoba Border

Is Manitoba the new Khyber Pass? The U.S. government is going to patrol the Manitoba border with unmanned drones...unarmed too...which has to be considered a bonus.

The stated goal of the RCMP, according to a CBC story, is to "...help in the fight against smuggling of drugs, alcohol and people." The American version of the reason to use drone surveillance, according to a U.S border protection official is "these are dangerous times" and it is important to know who and what is crossing the border.

The "what"threat to American security and border concerns is apparently dangerous drugs, alcohol and people. Oh yes illegal drugs from Canada has to be a concern. Perhaps the Americans are cracking down on their own seniors stealthily coming across the border in busloads and smuggling those cheaper Canadian pharmaceuticals into the States. that has to be the major national security threat from drugs.

As for beer who can blame Americans for wanting to smuggle Canadian beer instead of having to drink the tepid and tasteless beer they make.

As for people crossing the border, they are likely Canadian tourists heading off to warmer American climates to spend money and help out America with some recession fighting using some Free Trade Canadian cash. Be afraid. be very afraid of Canadians with cash and a hankering to spend it.

Yes sir. These are dangerous times. Unarmed drones are watching out for our best interests. And some human drones are doing some pretty shabby thinking on our behalf all at the same time. Can't pass up a two-for bargain like that now can we?

Wordle Shows Dominant Themes in Alberta's Oil Sands Strategic Plan

Here is a Wordle image of the text content of the recently released Alberta Government report entitled "Responsible Actions: A Plan for Alberta's Oil Sands." This technique measures the frequency of incidences of words and is a rough measure of relative importance of various concepts and themes in the document. Frequency of words is not the only measure of import and the absence of some key words and concepts may be even more telling of the mindset of the authors.

You can go to Wordle to see a larger vew of this image by searching for Alberta Oil Sands Strategy.

Responsible Actions is a very interesting document that I have just read and feel the need to take time to reflect on for a bit and to let the content and context sink in and gel. First impressions is that it is less than an action plan and more of a strategic framework, and for me that is a good thing. It is important to be asking the right questions before you rush to seeking answers.

Others, especially in the ENGO community are crititical of this and see it as a critical shortcoming of the report. They want more of an immdeidate action plan. I see that need for an immediate and urgent andb detailed action plan as the next step. But without a clear and considered working framework the outlines the principles and purposes a rush to action can be ill-conceived poorply executed and then do more harm than good.

The report takes a very integrated and comprehensive and long term triple bottom line approach that seeks to be responsible and sustainable and even adaptive. That is a significant difference in the consciousness of the way the Alberta government used to look at oil sands development which was growth was good regardless of the high costs due to the decade of break-neck development pace, physical and social infrastructure capacity limits or even the ecological consequences.

I commend the report as good reading, perhaps even required reading, for any engaged Alberta citizen who wants to see the thinking of their government on this most critical of economic, social and environmental issues for us and quite possibly for the planet. It is some very good thinking and now we need some serious commitment to effective and immediate implementation.

Is Warren Buffett Eyeing Nexen for Oil Sand Investment?

Rumours have it the Warren Buffett is looking at buying or buying into Nexen. Can't think of anything more dramatic to reinstill investor confidence into Alberta's oil sands development.

Will wait and see.

Ken Chapman on CBC Wildrose (Feb. 11, 2009)

Here is my CBC commentary from last Wednesday on the Alberta Throne Speech. Working on a blog post about the Throne Speech, another one on the 20 Year Oil Sands Strategy and the Alberta agenda we need for the Obama-Harper Hour in Ottawa next week. Stay tuned.

RMR: Canada explained

This is not only funny it is totally accurate(ish). Hat tip to the Calgary Grit for bring it to my attention.

Lawyers Layout Omar Khadr's Repatriation Plan to Harper

We at Cambridge Strategies have been working with Omar Khadr’s Canadian lawyer Dennis Edney, to help bring Omar home. There was a news conference this morning about Omar’s case and outlining how his legal counsel has a plan to reintegrate him into Canadian society.

This Blog has commented on Omar’s case as a social justice issue over his incarceration and arrest as a child soldier. I have bemoaned the shoddy treatment and torture he has received while in the custody of the Americans and the breathtaking disinterest in his case by our own Canadian governments, both Conservative and Liberal

Here is the text of the letter Dennis Edney delivered to Prime Minister Harper’s office on Sunday evening in preparation for today's news conference.


February 08, 2009


The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2


Dear Prime Minister Harper,


Re: Omar Khadr and Reintegration Plan


I write on behalf of various Canadian citizens, scholars, lawyers, academics, medical doctors, Imams, social activists and human rights and civil liberties organisations. We have prepared a reintegration plan for Omar Khadr, the details of which follow in this letter.


We, concerned citizens, believe in human compassion and the principle that no child should be forgotten and abandoned.


We have long advocated the return of Omar Khadr to Canada to be afforded the opportunity for a full and healthy reintegration within the Canadian society.


The recent changes in US policy with respect to Guantánamo Bay announced by President Obama offer the Canadian government a remarkable opportunity to take action to defend Omar Khadr’s rights.


We urge you to act expeditiously and request the repatriation of Omar Khadr to Canada, without further delay.


In anticipation of the possible release of Omar Khadr to Canada, we have developed a reintegration strategy for Omar’s return which we ask you to consider very seriously.


Our plan is designed to allow eminent organizations, representing a broad cross-section of Canadian institutions and agencies, to take legal responsibility for designing, implementing, and supervising all aspects of Omar’s life in Canada, until such time as he is able to become a fully functioning member of the Canadian mosaic.


An Oversight Committee will include but not limited to institutions and organizations representing the legal system, medical system and community, the educational system and community, the public service system and community, and the spiritual institutions and community representing several major faith based traditions.


This Oversight Committee will guide, direct and supervise the work of specialist professionals comprising the Khadr transition team. The transition team will bring together physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, temporal and spiritual counselors, specialists in rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers, professionals versed in treating post traumatic stress, teachers and educators, and other professionals as requested and required by the Oversight Committee.


To illustrate, the Khadr Transition team would include educators who would deliver a custom–designed schooling curriculum for Omar (which will be designed by King’s University College, Edmonton, Alberta, at their expense, and delivered in a home schooling enviroment) to bring him to the level of passing standard Canadian achievement tests.


The spiritual team would include leading clerics of the Muslim faith who belong to the mainstream of Canadian Muslims who are the majority that categorically denounces and opposes terrorism and radicalism; to impart to Omar the core message of humility, public service, peace and co - existence that is at the heart of Muslim teaching.


We see Omar living separate and apart from his family in another family setting until the Oversight Committee is advised by the Transition Team that Omar has developed the strengths to re-enter everyday life in Canada. This approach has the understanding and approval of Omar’s immediate family.


Much of Omar’s financial living costs will be borne by Canadian Muslim Organizations


We believe our reintegration and monitoring plan is comprehensive and addreses many of the concerns raised by the Canadian public should Omar return to Canada.


A recent Harris/Decima poll suggests 54% of Canadians believe Omar Khadr be returned to Canada while 38% believe he should face the court system in Canada, if returned.


We would welcome the opportunity for Omar to clear his name, face his abusers and put Guantanamo Bay on trial.


We would be pleased to provide further details about our reintegration plan on request.


We would also invite you to meet with members of the Oversight Committee prior to the visit by President Obama so that you can pass along a formal request.


In conclusion, we wish to assure you that we are prepared to work with your government in the interest of justice to ensure the reintegration and monitoring plan will prevail.


Yours sincerely,
DENNIS EDNEY, LLB hon.
NATHAN WHITLING, B.Comm, LL.B. dist., LL.M.

IT IS TIME TO BRING OMAR HOME.

New Blog From China Written by a Canadian

There is a new blogger on my links that I encourage everyone with curiosity and a global mindset to read. The Sinocanadian blog will give us some insight into what is happening in China from the perspective of a Canadian with a business and environmental bend.

Welcome to the Blogoshpere Rob.

Fort Chip Cancer Report Says There is a Concern and Calls for More Study and Monitoring

Reading the 91 page Alberta Cancer Board study on cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan one has to remember what the stated limitation of the study were to be sure you have an accurate context.

Those limitations were the small population size, the small number of cancer incidences in the study, migration patterns and impacts were not considered nor was any specific matters of potential unique characteristics of First Nations people in Fort Chip. Finally the study was not designed to determine the causes of cancers in Fort Chip nor if living in Fort Chip elevated cancer levels.

That said, the study found the incidence of overall cancer was higher than expected but could not say if is was due to chance of increased risk in the community. This could be determined by tracking more residents who have lived in the community for the past 20 to 30 years. Such a study would analyze risk factors form lifestyle, family history, occupational and environmental exposures.(emphasis added)

It is interesting that Fort McKay did not want to be used as a comparator in the study. They actually want their own comprehensive health study. They are closer to the oil sand action than Fort Chip is. The other comparison communities had some interesting findings. While Fort Chip had 51 cancer incidences against a statistically expected 39 cases, Fort McMurray and the Northern Lights Health Region had “significantly lower number of cancer cases than expected.” The women in Fort Chip had the same rates of cancer as women in the rest of Alberta but the men had higher incidences.

Detailed study showed that 2 out of the 6 rare kinds of cancer of concern to Dr. O’Connor were confirmed and three of 12 suspected colon cancers were confirmed. The others were not Ft. Chip residents, not cancer or different types of cancer. There were no childhood cancers found, no increases in middle aged or young adult cancers. All the increased incidences were in the 55+ age group and that is a larger than average portion of the Ft. Chip population.

Leukemia and diabetes rates were found to be significantly higher in Ft. Chip residents. Leukemia is 3 times higher than the expected rate. Age again is a factor as is family history. Studies have reported higher incidences of certain kinds of Leukemia where exposure to chemicals for workers in the petroleum, rubber, mining and agriculture industries where they are exposed to solvents, styrene, butadiene and ethylene oxides. Other studies did not report excesses of cancers with such exposure so there is nothing conclusive about these possible causes. Incidences of colon cancer in Ft. Chip were found to be within expected levels.

Other interesting findings from cancer studies that were reported in this study referenced comparing First Nations cancer rates with non-First Nations Alberta. There is no difference between the groups for lung and colon cancer. The lung cancer finding is surprising considering the rate of smoking amongst First Nations Albertans is twice the rate of non-First Nation Albertans. Something else that is counterintuitive is the fact that First Nation Albertans have “…significantly lower rates that non-First Nations for all cancer, leukemia and breast cancer. Conversely, the rate for cholangiocarcinoma, the rare cancers that caused the stir in Ft. Chip in the first place, was found to be “significantly higher” for First Nations than non-First Nations Albertans.

The report goes on to compare U.S. and Ontario studies comparing First Nations and non-First Nations cancer incidences. Interesting stuff that just serves to confirm the Alberta findings in the report. It is noted that a current study on the cancer incidences in Alberta based on this culture difference is in the final stages and will be published next year. That will be interesting reading I am sure.

So we know there are significantly higher cancer incidences, including the rare kind, in Ft. Chip. So what are the reasons? The report says they can and may include all three of chance, increased detection and risk due to lifestyle, occupational and environmental exposures. In discussing increased risk the report notes that Canadian studies up to 2004 showed one in two Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetime. Risk of cancer increases with age and people are living longer and therefore more likely to be diagnosed with cancer. That said, Ft. Chip has a lower proportion of residents in the 55+ age cohort than Alberta as a whole and the aging pattern in Ft. Chip is similar to the rest of the province. So age and even sex cannot explain why there are higher than expected cancer rates.

Lifestyle, socio-economic factors, nutrition and work and environmental exposures all contribute to cancer rates but this study did not deal with any of those causal factors specifically to account for the differences.

So the question of does the oil sands and even uranium deposits in the area contribute to increased incidences of cancer in Ft. Chip is still open. The report references some studies from the International Agency for Research on Cancer and says there is “inadequate evidence to classify crude oil as a human carcinogen, however, there is limited evidence for the carcinogenicity of crude oil in experimental animals.” That same source notes that two types of certain complex volatile organic compounds of petrochemical hydrocarbons, the stuff of crude oil, “…are probably carcinogenic to humans” and others in this group of organic compounds are also “…possibly carcinogenic to humans.” The reports notes that exposure to these potential carcinogens is usually by “…inhalation, ingestion and skin contact.” The most common non-occupational exposure to this stuff is by tobacco smoke and urban air inhalation.

That said, the report states that few epidemiological studies on cancer risks exist amongst petrochemical workers and residents living in close proximity to oil refineries and no studies exists in reference to oil sands mining. “Information about the occupational history of Fort Chipewyan residents and their possible exposures at work could be very important; however, this could not be collect at this stage of the investigation. Future studies should evaluate the occupational history and employment-related migration pattern of the cancer patients in the community.

Next steps call for on-going monitoring of Ft. Chip residences to see if the past increased incidences were random variances or if there is more to it. Given the extent and the long term nature of oil sands exploitation it seems to me that commitment for on-going monitoring and a deeper and more extensive set of studies is the appropriate course of action.

Dr. O’Connor may feel vindicated on the issue of higher incidences and the rare cancers. At the very least the College ought to get off his back. The community will likely be unconvinced and to a point they are entitled to hold that position because we have insufficient evidence to be conclusive about the causes and context of higher cancer incidences. Lifestyle and environmental/ occupational concerns seem to be the unknowns and worth pursuing for more information. All in all the report is a great start.

Harper's Defamation Action Folds Like an Old Lawnchair

Prime Minister Harper launched a defamation lawsuit against the opposition Liberal party for alleged comments they made allegedly implicating him in an alleged bribing attempt of deceased Independent MP Chuck Cadman for his vote in the Commons. Late Friday it was announced that the action was dropped by Prime Minister Harper.

Sorry to be using “allegedly” so often in this post but since nothing is proven and the combatants have gone silent as a result of the “settlement” of the lawsuit. We know nothing for sure and I don’t want to be sued on this matter either. Too bad the author Tom Zytaruk who taped the interview with Harper that formed the key evidence in this theatre of the absurd did not get an apology from the PM. He obviously deserves one now that Harper has folded.

We can draw some conclusions and implications from these events. Harper’s dropping the suit hardly makes his claim that the Liberal party comments on the issues and allegations were “the biggest mistake they ever made.” High hubris by Harper then and he has some very cold crow to munch on now.

The damage claim in Harper’s law suit for loss of reputation at $3.5m is now reduced to dick and each part pays their own costs in the action. That means that Harper wins nothing and the Liberals lose nothing and neither party will comment further. The downgrading of a political reputation loss allegation from millions to nothing and in fact costing the Plaintiff money for his own legal fees for pursuing the adventure come off like posturing and puffery at best.

This all may mean the Harper is hankering to govern now that he has to admit and accept that the country is in crisis and to stop bullying the opposition as his primary political goal. Heaven knows the country needs him to make the shift. My money says he has not really made the leap and will now be in leadership limbo and drift into disinterest and do neither.

Obama Invited to Alberta

I see Premier Stelmach has invited President Obama to come to Alberta and visit the oil sands.

Good move but more needs to be done to make this effort effective. We clearly need to be sharing information, developing a deeper understanding and looking for ways to make the exploitation of this vital resource more responsible and sustainable.

Albertans are up for that but we need our business and policians to catch up to the enlightened consciousness of the citizenship.

I see President Obama is planning a mere 5 hour meeting in Ottawa with Stephen Harper on February 19th. He clearly sees meeting with Harper as not a very productive use of his time. I will do a blog post soon on what I think will be and should be on the agenda.

Alberta Needs to Start Thinking for a Change. Ontario Is!

I am intrigued by the Ontario government’s support for taking advantage of the current economic crisis as an opportunity to transition to a creative economy from a dying industrial age. I guess it helps that Richard Florida who writes on urban cultural creatives has recently moved from the States to Toronto as his preferred city of residence. I like Florida but prefer the deeper insights of Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson’s work “The Cultural Creatives” about similar themes.

Florida has teamed up with Roger Martin the Dean of the U of T’s Rotman School of Business to write a report commissioned by Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty to be released today. The report is Ontario-centric but is said to be transformational and transferable to all provinces and will show how to move from an industrial society to a creative one. Ontario has been studying the link between prosperity and productivity for some time now. They are clearly leading the way to add a creative link as a means to future prosperity as well. I am looking forward to getting a copy of the report and giving it a careful read.

Alberta is in need of this kind of thinking for a change. Alberta is still striving too much to sustain a sense of yesterday. For example we continue to subsidize conventional oil and gas drilling activity by reducing royalties and industry accountability for sound environmental practices and duties to reclaim abandoned sites. We have fragmented the boreal forest with well sites, seismic lies, roads and right of ways so badly that its sustainability for wildlife is under serious threat.

It is not all bad in Alberta but there are few serious signs of any significant transformational shift happening in Alberta anytime soon. We need to quit compromising to conventional industry demands and to embed a new consciousness of innovation and adventure that will take us to a new level of diversification. Examples of that kind of leadership thinking are around but they are sparse and segregated and mostly insignificant.

We have some political champions in Alberta for such a change but they don’t seem to be winning the agenda and priority battles in Cabinet and Caucus. Alberta seems more intent on perfecting yesterday with more and more concessions being granted to the conventional industries from oil and gas, to forestry to agriculture in an effort to try and sustain old models and methods in the conventional economy.

We Albertans have the necessity to adapt and change because fossil fuels have limits that are economic and environmental. We have the fiscal resources to change. We have the institutional and intellectual infrastructure and human ingenuity horsepower in our universities, technical schools and the Alberta Research Council to change.

We have a very creative group of people in our cultural industries and environmental and social services sectors as well. We can transform the province if we choose to. We seem to lack the visionary leadership in politics and business to actually engage in the new world we can see coming. We are too "successful" and complacent to have any sense of urgency and intentionality to get serious about the inevitable changes that are coming. We seem content to passively react rather than actively respond.

This recession is a perfect opportunity to revisit, revise and to shift to a new trajectory and to actively eschew the tyranny of the dead ideas of the past. Speaking of the tyranny of dead ideas, I just bought Matt Miller’s book of the same name. I intend to read it carefully. I will also be rereading Thomas Homer-Dixon’s “The Ingenuity Gap” to find a reframing of my own consciousness about these concerns about the need to rethink and transform our economy.

Time for Alberta to start thinking for a change. Ontario is on to it. Why not us?

Ignatieff Shows Strength of Character and Wise Leadership

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff understands and respects representative democracy. He has shown those qualities of character by the way he consulted and enabled those Newfoundland and Labrador members of his Caucus to take a stand and vote against the Harper budget. The wanted to take such a stand because the Harper budget serves to single out and punish their region and their constituents. Good for him and good for them.

Old line partisans who think political leadership is about dictating to Caucus in all circumstances and punishing transgressors will call this enlightened approach a mistake and a sign of weakness on Iggy’s part. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ultimate consequences of those 6 members taking a stand and representing the interests of their constituencies are insignificant in the large scheme of things but symbolically important to them and their people.

Politics is all about perception and the Harper cons will mule and mock as is their wont about this action shows Iggy can’t control his Caucus. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The overarching perception that needs to be appreciated here is the flexibility and wisdom of Iggy in accepting the principled position of those 6 disgruntled Liberal MPs. These PMs are supposed to represent the best interests of their region, an area of Canada that is being screwed by the Harper government – yet again.

The luxury of opposition is that the same level of party solidarity is not as necessary for the governing party. The risk in a minority government situation is too much of this self-actualization of MPs could actually unwittingly topple a government. Well that was undoubtedly considered at the MPS met face to face with their leader to discuss the situation and work out a solution. No fear of an inadvertent election happening in this case. This situation shows us Ignatieff’s superior wisdom, judgment and leadership qualities, not to mention his demonstrable personal respect for representative democracy.

You sure can’t say anything close to that about Mr. Harper. Last time Harper had a dissident MP was Bill Casey. His principled stand was to vote against the Harper position on the Atlantic Accord that screwed Nova Scotia where his riding is. Casey was drummed out of the Harper Party Caucus but got his revenge in the last election when he ran as an Independent and won his seat again.

Now the shameless Harper Cons have filed a bogus complaint to the RCMP against Casey making unfounded allegations of election spending irregularities. Bush-league Rovarian tactics are still alive and well in the bosom of the Harper Cons.

Compare the leadership qualities of Harper and Ignatieff in these two parallel circumstances and ask yourself why you ever voted for Harper in the first place. Don’t make the same mistake next time!

Ken Chapman on CBC Wildrose (Jan. 28, 2009)

Here is my lastest column on CBC Wildrose on the Federal Budget and what it means - especially to Alberta.

Bailed Out Investment Banker and Brokers Still Pay Billions in Bogus Bonuses

The Wizards of Wall Street have fallen from grace due to greed and some should be in jail due to corruption and fraud. The tone deaf insensitive and PR deficit CEOs of the Big Three automaker how took their private corporate jets to Congress to beg for taxpayer bailouts was seen as ignorance, arrogance and insouciance – which it was. It was child’s play compared to the almost $20 billion of bonus payout the investment bankers blessed themselves in New York alone, after they got billions of taxpayer money.

Obama has called this action "the height of irresponsibility" and"shameful" and he is right.

The next time some superficial self-satisfied captain of commerce tells me governments should be run more like business I think I will explode. Given the greed, corruption and indifference too many of these self-satisfied sanctimonious scumbags has shown to serving the public interest and lack of respect to their social license to operate I think the business community better shake its collective head and do some serious soul searching about its roles and responsibilities.

I don’t like over regulation but I detest under regulation even more. It was the latter that led to a lax governing philosophy that was bred by too much of the small government, regulation elimination mantra of the fundamentalist conservative politicians that helped to get us into this mess and economic meltdown.

Those neo-con politicians and their “free enterprise” campaign funders have forgotten that the economy is a social value system that we humans invented. It is intended to serve the needs of our society - not the other way around.

When the economic system gets distorted to the point where greed and corruption become normalized then citizens have to get reengaged and start insisting some heads get banged together and some other heads roll. We need to start making some serious demands of the politicians, regulators and to start to tar and feather, Internet style, those psychopathic self-satisfied corporate privateers who are cheating us and rip us off and then begging for taxpayer bailouts.

The cost of taxpayer cash to corporate bailouts must be much more public and regulatory scrutiny, operational transparency, fiscal accountability and governance controls on the private sector that gets the cash. They must be expected to satisfy the same ethical rigour, operational accountability and disclosure diligence that we expect of government officials and public servants. It is time we insisted that industry acted according to the same level of social service standards as we expect from government if they get a taxpayer bailout.

If you Masters of the Universe types expect taxpayer bailouts to be invested, lent and granted to your “free” enterprises in order to save your asses, then expect serious on-going open and transparent public accountability and scrutiny as one of the cost of raising that social capital from us citizens.

You supercilious business guys always knew that you are the “smartest guys in the room” - in any room - right? So I am sure you will have no trouble getting this new reality of accountability and transparency that will be imposed on you in exchange for taxpayer money.

Uncle Jay Explains: Jan. 26, 2009

Another update on political and cultural insights from Uncle Jay as he explains the news

Ken Chapman on Wildrose (Jan. 14, 2009)

This Interview on CBC Wildrose was around the time of the First Ministers meeting and Flaherty pushing for a single national securities regulator. A bad idea in my opinion andt he subject of a post I expect some dya soon.

Listen to this interview as context for the Federal Budget on Tuesday. I will be doing an interview on CBC Radio One - Wildrose all across Alberta on Wednesday about 12:45 pm in response to the Harper budget. Tune in!

Uncle Jay Explains: Jan. 19, 2009

Sorry I did not load this earlier in the week but Uncle Jay is never out of context. Enjoy.

Lost Generation

This video is 1:44 long and worth every second it takes to watch. Hat tip to Kim Bater Chair of the Canadian Rockies Public School district in Banff Alberta for the link.

Nexen Proves New Oil Sands Technology Works and Helps the Environment

With all the doom and gloom in the economy and the increasing angst around oil sands development there is still some good news coming out that is worth celebrating.

Nexen Inc. is an integrated, innovative and award winning Canadian energy company. It is involved in the Alberta oil sands, amongst other endeavours all over the globe. So here is the good news. They have just produced the first barrel of Premium Sweet Crude from their Upgrader at their Long Lake oil sands project.

On the face of this news, one could say “big deal” but it is. They have now proven that a new oil sands technology can work to scale that is both good for the environment and the corporate bottom line - at the same time. They have the Long Lake project now in production with a target of 60,000 barrels per day. They also upgrade the bitumen on site with a facility that uses this new environmentally responsible technology.

What the Nexen Long Lake project does is use some oil sands waste from their SAGD operations and they convert it into a synthetic natural gas that they use as a heat source in further oil sands production. This means less waste but also means they don’t need as much conventional natural gas to operate their plant. Using conventional natural gas for bitumen extraction has been described in the past as using "gold to mine lead." This new technology creates a "synthetic gold" if you will allow me to mangle the metaphor.

We need to see more energy companies show this kind of leadership and responsibility as we move forward to provide safe, secure reliable energy as well as RESPONSIBLE and SUSTAINABLE oil sands development.

Well done Nexen. Keep up the good work.

Alberta Makes Housing Happen in Ft McMurray

The appointment of an Advisory Board on the development of 7000 residential housing units in the Parsons Creek area of Fort McMurray is great news. A full 20% of the first phase development will be affordable housing. This policy initiative has been a long time coming but better late than never.

I know most of the Advisory Board members and can say they are a very impressive group of people with experience, ability and integrity. Those members I know personally are involved and dedicated to the Wood Buffalo region and the northern part of Alberta generally. Good work Minister Fritz and thanks to those officials and citizens for taking on this task.

The Advisory Board is not going to develop the site but will represent community interests, advise and make recommendations to the powers that be about the overall development plan. The government lands will be sold and the profits will be reinvested in more affordable housing, schools, community health centres and recreation facilities.

Housing has long been a chronic and systemic problem in Fort McMurray for years. The release of Government of Alberta owned and controlled lands in the region have always been part of the solution. The Radke Report “Investing in Our Future: Responding to the Rapid Growth of Oil Sands Development” added to the political pressure and provided the policy clarity needed for the Stelmach government to break away from the lip-service paid to the issues by the former Klein regime.

Full Disclosure, way back in 2005 my firm worked on a Business Case and a tripartite agreement with all three orders of government to work out how to fund and process funds to meet infrastructure needs in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

It was agreed to as a preferred working model by every level of government at the administrative and political level but at the last minute Alberta balked at the political level about proceeding and it never found traction. Then Doug Radke came along with a terrific report that pushed the policy ball over the goal line. With new leadership in the province, the ideas and needs finally got some political traction.

With the current market and recession driven hiatus on further oilsands development the time to get going and to catch up to this serious housing crisis is now. Nice to see it happening.

President Obama, Please Bring Omar Home!

Nice to see the Harper government is “reassessing” its deplorable stand to let the Omar Khadr, the Canadian child soldier who has been tortured and rotting in the Bush/Cheney Guantanamo disgrace.

President Obama promised to undo Guantanamo human rights disgrace perpetrated by the Bush White House that not only suspended the Rule of Law in the United States, it breeched it constantly.

Khadr is charged and being tried in a U.S. military “court” process that is seriously deficient as a fair and impartial judicial process. Obama knows this, has said so repeatedly and now is acting on it, in the first day of his Presidency by staying all prosecutions and saying Guantanamo must be closed within a year. It is nice to have a lawyer in the White House that didn’t graduate in the bottom of his class for a change.

The Harper government has been intellectually and morally bankrupt on the Khadr case. The previous Liberal government was not much better but they didn’t know all the facts Harper has come to know. Khadr is the only western national still in Guantanamo that has not been repatriated to his homeland. Perhaps President Obama will bring Omar home with him on Air Force One when he visits Canada in the next few weeks. That would be sweet.

That moral and legal deficit is entirely on the shoulders of Stephen Harper how has failed, refused and neglected to act because pleasing George Bush was more important to him than protecting a Canadian citizen .

The recent “evidence” in an FBI agent’s “testimony” in Gitmo alleging Khadr saw Maher Arar in an Afghan “safe house” has been discredited under cross-examination. Arar is the other Canadian who has been victimized by the morally lax and intellectually lazy leadership of Stephen Harper. Hopefully this is the last of this kind of abuse of authority and legal processes by governments and their agents - like the FBI.

The world has been delivered from the vile and viciousness of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld regime. Our very own Prime Minister Harper was all ready and prepared to be their political instrument on too many of their reprehensible policy positions from social to environmental to economic abuses and disasters.

It is time to bring Omar home and face a real court in a real judicial proceeding in Canada for any charges that are serious and of substance; not merely politically motivated. Too many men and women have died over the centuries to enable, preserve and protect those freedoms for the rest of us.

Harper has dishonoured those sacrifices and we as citizens have been way too complacent and indifferent to such abuses of rights of fairness and freedom. It is time for Harper to go and with Rick Hillier showing some interest in replacing him, the time is ripening.

A Canadian's tears of joy for Obama presidency

My friend and business partner Satya Das wrote a piece that ran in the Chicago area newspapers today to mark the day of the Obama presidency. I hope you enjoy it.

Anti-Epcor Protest Misleads and Fizzles...As It Should

UPDATE: EDMONTON CITY COUNCIL VOTED 7-6 IN FAVOUR OF THE ASSET SALE TO EPCOR YESTERDAY JANUARY 21/09

I am fascinated over the various events and pieces of commentary on the proposed EPCOR purchase of the City of Edmonton Gold Bar Water Treatment Plant. The media coverage has been extensive including Letters to the Editor, an editorial, columnist coverage and an Op-Ed http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Gold+proposal+much+more+than+just+harmless+transfer/1190969/story.html More about that in a minute.

Today the Edmonton City Council will have an all day non-statutory public hearing on the proposed transaction. My guess is more people will prudently opt to watch the Obama inauguration.

This issue has clearly not resulted in a spontaneous ground swell of citizen concern over the EPCOR proposal to buy the plant from the city. The protest rally to oppose the sale drew “about a dozen people” to the steps of City Hall on Sunday. Can you conclude anything other than the support for opposition to the deal is underwhelming?

Full disclosure, EPCOR is a client but we are not working on this file and I have not spoken to them about it. What I really want to discuss here is the astonishing misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the relationship between EPCOR and the City of Edmonton, especially as it relates to this proposed transaction and generally. The best place to illustrate this is the Parkland Institute’s Executive Director, Ricardo Acuna’s Op-ed in the Sunday Edmonton Journal.

The Gold Bar proposed sale deal is for $75 million and Mr Acuna says Edmontonians are being told the sale is “trifling detail.” I don’t recall anyone putting that characterization on a deal that large and I wish Mr. Acuna would provide the source of that representation. It would help us better understand the comment and add credibility to his framing and positioning of the transaction.

The proposed sale is said to superficially “…seem innocuous enough –a simple transfer from the city to its wholly owned corporations EPCOR.” However there is a suggestion my Mr. Acuna that on closer examination the deal “…raises some disturbing questions.”

So what are the “disturbing questions”? Well apparently one is the very purpose of the water treatment plant which is to process sewage to make it safe to return to the river. The city operation of the facility is truthfully said to do that job with “…admirable efficiency and effectiveness.” Mr. Acuna poses a question about how the Gold Bar asset transfer will benefit Edmontonians and says “the question is still largely unanswered.” Whatever that means!

I don’t know exactly what representations EPCOR has made in support of the transfer but I doubt it was to enhance their “expertise and reputation” around water treatment. They already run the E.L. Smith and Rossdale Water Treatment plant for Edmontonians. They provide water treatment services to 8 other Alberta communities and others in B.C. and Ontario. EPCOR’s expertise and reputation is clearly not the issue.

Mr Acuna’s next concern seems to be about the ownership and control of EPCOR. EPCOR is a corporation that is wholly owned by the City of Edmonton. Mr. Acuna is right about one thing, these are two legal entities but they are not “entirely separate” as Mr. Acuna states. The City of Edmonton owns EPCOR and appoints the Board of Directors to oversee the strategic and management operation of the corporation for the benefit of the citizens of Edmonton. The city wisely does not interfere with the day-to-day operation, just like the Province of Alberta deals with the Alberta Treasury Branches.

This asset sale transaction is not a privatization as per Mr. Acuna’s mischaracterization. It is merely a legal reallocation of asset management responsibility within the governing and control ambit and ultimate continuing ownership of the City of Edmonton.
The coalition campaigners to discredit a normal business transaction as something sinister include the Council of Canadians, CUPE and the Parkland Institute. They managed to draw an astonishing “dozen people” to rally in front of City Hall last Sunday to protest the deal.

Edmontonians obviously don’t feel like Mr. Acuna alleges that they are being given a “dismissive pat on the head and patronizing assertions that there is nothing to worry about.” What is happening is this “Keep Drainage Edmonton” coalition has been exposed and proved to be like the Wizard of Oz with the curtain pulled back.

People are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts.

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

It is timely to revisit the will.i.am Yes We Can video that has over 15 million You Tube views so far. Tuesday is going to be enormous for those of us who want change and are up for the challenges.

@Issue Tobacco Cmopanies

I have not focused on the health issues from tobacco for a while and it is time to climb back on the soapbox. Allan Bonner and I work together and it is great to see hiim using this issue on his iChannel TV program. I publish some of his books through Sextant a subsidiary of Cambridge Strategies Inc. Email me if you want details.

Uncle Jay Explains: Jan. 12, 2009

Uncle Jay has more to say about the news. Enjoy this island of smart humour in a sea changing world.

Why Did Syncrude's Former COO House Burn Down?

The investigation into the recent fire that destroyed the Carter home is not complete. It is a sad situation for the Carter family that they would have to lose their home, possessions and personal effects by fire and possible arson. Then there is anxiety one would feel about personal safety if it was a fire bomb that started the blaze. If there was arson involved it is also sad for the rest of us and should make us wonder about the kind of society we are evolving into.

Some folks are already jumping to conclusions about eco-terrorism and linking that to the Carter fire to his role in oil sands development. Some are even linking this incident to the drowning of the ducks on the Syncrude tailings pond last year. We need a lot more information from investigation that is going on before that leap to any conclusions.

That said, one has to be concerned when such an event happens to a family of a man in the past and current position of Jim Carter. We have seen 3 or 4 unresolved eco-terrorists bombings on pipelines in the Alberta – B.C. border of late. We saw Greenpeace able to breach security and place a banner on a tailings pond berm as a publicity stunt but the ease with which they did this trespass stunt is pretty telling and chilling if you think about it. Oil sands facilities are strategic targets especially as we tout it as the safe, secure and reliable energy source for the Americans. Alberta better be on top of the implications and consequences of that reality and ready to deal with it.

The pressure is mounting on the Alberta energy sector to get serious about the environmental consequences and practices around oil sands development. There are indications that they are feeling this pressure. Some efforts are being made within the energy sector to respond but indications are that they are not yet fully aware and conscious of the breadth and depth of their social license to operate problems. Employing PR techniques and tactics will not do it…in fact it will just make the animosity and distrust worse and deeper.

I have known and admired Jim Carter for about 14 years and assure you we all owe him a debt of gratitude for his skill and wisdom that he brought to bear in the early days of oil sands development. He and his family don’t deserve the anxiety, loss and sorrow the burning of their home has caused. I hope these incidents are shown not to motivated by eco-terrorism. I am not ready to jump to that conclusion without evidence. But I am looking forward to the results of the current investigation and will form my judgment and engage on the issues and implications, if any, accordingly.

500 Drowned Ducks Still Haunt Syncrude and Governments

Update on the private prosecution against Syncrude over the 500 migrating ducks who drowned in their tailings pond. Shaun Fluker of the University of Calgary Faculty of Law is blogging on it at the faculty's blog cleverly called ABlawg.ca

According to Professor Fluker the action is founded on an alleged breach of Section 5.1 of the Migratory Birds Convention Act of 1994. I understand there is a Canada US treaty protecting migratory bird habitat too. That brings an international persepective to the issues and Obama may be on it too.

This is federal legislation so both Alberta and Canada will be interested. The first Court appearance is anticipated sometime in February.

I am going to be watching this one very closely because I am working on it professionally from a public policy and lobbying perspective. I will keep you up to date on what is happening.

PHOTO CREDIT: /Sheryl McAuley in Flickr